State v. B & L LANDFILL, INC.

758 S.W.2d 297, 1988 Tex. App. LEXIS 1763, 1988 WL 68848
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 7, 1988
Docket01-87-00285-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 758 S.W.2d 297 (State v. B & L LANDFILL, INC.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. B & L LANDFILL, INC., 758 S.W.2d 297, 1988 Tex. App. LEXIS 1763, 1988 WL 68848 (Tex. Ct. App. 1988).

Opinion

OPINION

LEVY, Justice.

This is an appeal of the allocation of costs upon termination of a receivership in a Texas Clean Air Act enforcement action.

On January 31, 1983, Harris County and the State of Texas jointly brought an enforcement action numbered 83-09279 against B & L Landfill, Inc. (“B & L”), and Leslie M. Griffin for violations of Tex.Rev. Civ.Stat.Ann. art. 4477-5 (Vernon Supp. 1986), known as the Texas Clean Air Act (the “Act”). At the conclusion of a bench trial, the trial court found the defendants in violation of the Act, issued an injunction, reserved assessment of civil penalties, and sua sponte appointed Charles L. Sowell as receiver in the action.

Later, in an order signed on February 6, 1984, the trial court appointed Charles L. Sowell as receiver in cause of action 82-28891, a separate and independent ownership dispute, styled Leslie Griffin, et al. v. Charles David Wright, et al., to which B & L was a party. The State of Texas was not a party to this cause of action, which was nevertheless treated by the court as consolidated with the enforcement action mentioned before.

On March 20, 1987, the trial court issued a “Final Order Terminating Receivership and Awarding Costs,” in which the court ordered that the receiver and his attorney were entitled to recover the sum of $70,-000. The Court allocated payment of these funds as follows:

1. Harris County, Texas shall pay the Receiver and his attorney Twenty Thousand and No/100 Dollars ($20,000.00);
2. The State of Texas shall pay the Receiver and his attorney Twenty Thousand and No/100 Dollars ($20,000.00);
3. Leslie Griffin shall pay the Receiver and his attorney Twenty Thousand and No/100 Dollars ($20,000.00);
4. Bill Paul shall pay the Receiver and his attorney Ten Thousand and No/100 Dollars ($10,000.00);
5. The Court makes no assessment for the Receiver or his attorney against People’s Bank or Fan L. Schwartz.

The order concluded by terminating the receivership relating to the consolidated causes, numbered 83-09279 and 82-28891, and ordered that the receiver, Charles L. Sowell, be discharged as receiver in both causes. We note that the receiver did not file a final report or account in detail for his expenses.

In its first point of error, the State contends that the trial court erred in admitting into evidence the time logs compiled by the receiver as proof of costs for the receivership, because they bore the cause number 82-28891 and contained a mixture of entries for work attributable to the cause of action to which the State was not a party (82-28891), as well as to the cause of action to which the State was a party (83-09279). These time logs did not segregate costs by cause number. The State also claims as erroneous the trial court’s admission into evidence of the receiver’s “Motion to Rule for Costs” because, while it bore the cause numbers and styles of both cases, it failed to specify how the costs were divided between the two causes of action.

The State asserts that it is not possible to determine from this evidence whether the State has been allocated costs only for the lawsuit to which it was a party, or whether it has also been allocated costs for the cause of action to which it was not a party. For this reason, the State urges that the evidence was erroneously admitted.

In its second point of error, the State asserts that the trial court erred in assessing, against the State, costs for the receivership in cause of action 82-28891, to which it was not a party.

The State urges that the causes of action were not in fact consolidated and that even if they were consolidated, the State should not be required to fund the receivership *299 activities in a suit to which it was not a party.

We first turn our attention to the issue of consolidation. “When actions involving a common question of law or fact are pending before the court, it may order a joint hearing or trial of any or all the matters in issue in the actions; ...” Tex.R.Civ.P. 174. Procedural matters such as consolidation of parties and claims are within the sound discretion of the trial court, and the court’s rulings on such issues will not be disturbed on appeal except upon a showing of abuse of discretion. Allison v. Arkansas Louisiana Gas Co., 624 S.W.2d 566, 568 (Tex.1981).

The record contains no order consolidating these two causes of action into one, but the trial judge stated on several occasions during the hearing on the Receiver’s Motion to Rule for Costs that he intended that the causes would be consolidated and considered them, in fact, to be consolidated. He also stated several times that he would make findings on that issue in his final order. The final order, however, did not contain any findings on this, or any other, issue.

In the case at bar, the trial court was confronted with determining the costs of the B & L receivership. Although two separate causes of action were involved, B & L was a party to both, and Charles L. Sowell was the receiver in both. It was not an abuse of discretion for the trial court to consider the issue of receivership costs at one hearing and to admit evidence pertaining to both causes of action. The trial court stated on the record that it was fully aware of and very familiar with the proceedings in both causes of action, and knew full well what the duties and performance of the receiver had been in each cause of action. The record does not reflect any evidence that would contradict such a statement.

Appellant’s first point of error is overruled.

As to the second point of error, alleging that the court erred in ordering the State to pay costs incurred by the receiver in the ownership dispute unrelated to the receiver’s activities in the air pollution suit to which the State was a party, it is well settled that costs are not taxable against one not a party to a suit. County of Dallas v. Gibbs, 525 S.W.2d 500, 501 (Tex.1975). The fees of a receiver are to be considered a part of the court costs. Jones v. Strayhom, 159 Tex. 421, 321 S.W.2d 290 (1959); Hodges v. Peden, 634 S.W.2d 8 (Tex.App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 1982, no writ). While it would have been erroneous for the trial court to have ordered the State of Texas to pay costs of the receivership in the cause of action to which it was not a party, we have no evidence before us that the State was, in fact, allocated such costs.

Neither the trial court’s order nor the record contains any finding of fact or conclusion of law or any request for same by the State.

Because there are no findings of fact and conclusions of law, the judgment implies all necessary fact findings and must be affirmed, if it can be upheld on any legal theory supported by the evidence.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
758 S.W.2d 297, 1988 Tex. App. LEXIS 1763, 1988 WL 68848, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-b-l-landfill-inc-texapp-1988.